October 29: Facts & Historical Events On This Day

Spain’s southeastern Valencia region was hit by severe flash flooding, resulting in at least 95 deaths.

The deadly flash floods came after a year's worth of rain fell in just eight hours, causing widespread destruction across the region.

Climate Control reported that rising sea levels would “erase” many coastal cities by as early as 2050.

The announcement poses a threat to over 300 million people.

Nigel Richards won the World Scrabble Championships for the fourth time in a row with the word “groutier.”

Groutier means sulky, surly, or bad-tempered.

China increased its one-child policy to two children per family.

Communist officials cited an aging population and the need to "balance social demographics" as the main reasons for relaxing the regulation.

The James Bond spy movie “Quantum of Solace” with Daniel Craig premiered in London.

It was the first Bond movie to feature a blonde James Bond and was a reboot of the series.

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner became Argentina’s first female president.

India was hit by the Odisha super cyclone, India’s strongest storm.

The super cyclonic storm reached wind speeds of 160 miles per hour and killed nearly 10,000 people.

The first American astronaut to orbit Earth, John Glenn, returned to space aboard NASA’s STS-95 Voyager.

At age 77, Glenn was the oldest person to travel to space at the time. He returned after lobbying NASA for years to study the effects of space travel on an aging body.

The first computer-to-computer link was established on ARPANET.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) established many of the connection protocols we still use today and is considered to be the precursor to the internet.

Adventures of Asterix was first published in the French magazine “Pilote.”

The series follows the adventures of Gaulish warriors who battle the Roman Empire.

Turkey became a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

The International Committee of the Red Cross was formed when eighteen countries gathered in Geneva, Switzerland.

The International Committee for Relief to the Wounded proposed the concept to help improve the medical services offered on the battlefield within Europe.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera “Don Giovanni” premiered in Prague.

Pope Innocent IX was elected.